2013-06-01 Eagan Business NewsJ O U R N A L O F T H E E A G A N B U S I N E S S C O M M U N I T Y
Second Quarter 2013 Vol. 12 No. 2
Business NewsEagan
C
6page 2
Riders join
the Red Line
)page 3
n Eagan:
Employment Hot Spot
n Paragon outlet center
breaks ground
n Eagan Market Fest features
60-plus vendors
i n s i d e t h i s i s s u e
(
page 4
Briefly:
Eagan businesses
in the news
continued on page 2
page 1
Osberg gets to know
Eagan business
climate and more
Not on our email list?
To subscribe to Eagan Business News or E-Biz,our online publication, visit www.cityofeagan.com/EBN.
As Eagan’s new city administrator, Dave
Osberg,54, has been on the job for four
months, getting to know Eagan — the
community and the organization — connecting
with local leaders and keeping on top of
daily happenings.
It’s going to take some time: After all, Eagan
is a $45 million enterprise, with 65,000
residents and 50,000 workers.
“I’m trying do a lot of listening to learn about
the issues,” he says. “Listening is a better
skill than talking your first few months on
the job.”
On the morning of this interview, Osberg
already had one meeting under his belt: He
had met with Rev. Jim Borgschatz,retired
pastor of Easter Lutheran Church and long-
Don’t miss the next
issue of E-Biz:
Subscribe to E-Biz: The Online
Journal of Eagan Business News
for timely business features,
news and information relevant to
Eagan businesses and business
leaders. This online newsletter
augments our printed publica-
tion, Eagan Business News.To
receive E-Biz in your inbox, visit
www.cityofeagan.com/EBN.
Osberg gets to know Eagan
business climate and more
time Eagan resident, at one of his favorite
new haunts — Caribou Coffee on Duckwood.
(He also frequents Dunn Brothers on Diffley.)
He then faced a busy day of successive
meetings with Mayor Mike Maguire;
Steven Chávez,Eagan’s Metropolitan
Council representative; Jon Hohenstein,
community development director; and
Russ Mathys,public works director.
“The days go quickly,” Osberg says. But this
feels familiar to the former Hastings city
administrator of more than 20 years. “Eagan
has the good fortune of a lot of development
and redevelopment going on.” Osberg notes
that just as he started, the fate of the
Having served as Hastings’ city administrator
since 1989, Dave Osberg is already extremely
knowledgeable about
Dakota County. He began
his new role as Eagan’s city
administrator in March.
2 Eagan Business NEWS
J O U R N A L O F T H E E A G A N B U S I N E S S C O M M U N I T Y
Osberg gets to know Eagan
continued from page 1
Second Quarter 2013
Parkview Golf Club was being determined and plans for the
Paragon outlet mall groundbreaking were getting underway.
One topic he has been learning about is the Eagan business
climate. “Whether I’m speaking to individuals or groups, I keep
hearing the same theme: the great relationship between
the City of Eagan and the business community. I have every
intention to make sure that continues.”
Serving in Eagan isn’t totally new to Osberg. In fact, roughly
30 years ago, as part of his Mankato State master’s degree
program, he served as an intern for Tom Hedges.Hedges —
Eagan’s first and only city administrator — retired in February
after 36 years. Osberg calls him a longtime mentor and friend.
Interestingly, while cleaning out some old files recently, Osberg
came across a paper he wrote on Eagan back then. “I was
struck by some of the policies being initiated at the time on
travel and the volunteer fire department. Tom had the wisdom
to put these policies in place. Those policies are fundamental
now, but they were new back then.”
Morning commuters climbed aboard
the Red Line at the Cedar Grove
Transit Station for a fast ride to Mall
of America and beyond on Monday,
June 24. They were taking advantage
of Metro Transit’s new Red Line
service touted on its site as “Fast.
Frequent. A brand new way to travel.”
This new bus rapid transitway
(BRT) offers station-to-station service
from the Apple Valley Transit Station
to Mall of America, with additional
stops, including the Cedar Grove station. The Red Line
connects at Mall of America to the light-rail service
of the Metro Blue Line, which takes travelers to
downtown Minneapolis.
Red Line buses travel on Cedar Avenue’s bus-only shoulder
“I’m trying to do a lot of listening to learn about
the issues. Listening is a better skill than talking.”
— Dave Osberg, Eagan’s city administrator
Lately, the Mayor, the City Council and Osberg have been
looking ahead, imagining the Eagan of the future. “In late April,
we enjoyed a Council retreat to discuss where we want to go
next as a community,” he says. “It’s an important question to
ask, not just as a city government, but as a community. We
set some visions, and now we’re putting substance to those
visions. We plan to share them with the community by the end
of summer.”
In the meantime, Osberg will continue to get comfortable
in his new role. He chooses an apt seasonal metaphor: “Being
a city administrator is kind of like riding a bike,” he says. “In
Eagan, it’s a different bike — it’s a bit faster and a bit bigger.”
And he’s busy switching gears.n
Riders join
the Red Line
lanes and operate every 15 minutes from 5 a.m. to
midnight, Monday through Friday, and every 30 minutes
from 7:30 a.m. to midnight, Saturday and Sunday.
For more information, schedules and maps, visit
metrotransit.org/metro-red-line.n
While most Dakota County cities are bedroom communities,
that’s not true of Eagan. According to the American
Community Survey, while most working adults in Dakota
County leave their cities for their day jobs, more working
adults pour into Eagan during the day than leave.
From a larger perspective, Dakota County has roughly
173,000 workers working in the county, but a whopping
211,000 workers living in the county; thus, due to commuting,
the daytime population drops by nearly 38,000 or 10 percent.
In just two Dakota County cities — Eagan and Mendota
Heights — the reverse is true: Mendota Heights has nearly
10,000 workers working in the city, while only 5,000 workers
actually live in the city. Eagan has nearly 53,000 workers
working in the city, while only 36,500 workers live in the city.
Thus, these two cities are “labor importers.”
This data was provided to Eagan leaders by the
Dakota County Office of Planning and Analysis for emergency-
response planning.
“Generally speaking,” writes Jane Vanderpoel,Dakota
County, management analyst, in her memo, “large
urbanized cities whose land use is primarily office towers or
manufacturing (as opposed to residential uses) are large labor
importers (meaning more people are found in those cities
during the day) while outer-ring suburban areas generally are
labor exporters (meaning more people are found in those
cities during the evenings and at night).”
Thus, while Eagan and Mendota Heights are outer-ring
suburbs, their business characteristics — boasting large
corporations and manufacturing interests — more closely
match an urban area.
For more information about the American Community
Survey or the analysis by the Census Bureau, please visit
www.census.gov/hhes/commuting/data/daytimepop.html.n
Second Quarter 2013J O U R N A L O F T H E E A G A N B U S I N E S S C O M M U N I T Y
Eagan: Employment Hot Spot
Eagan Business NEWS 3g EBN is printed on paper which contains a minimum of 10% post consumer fiber.
Paragon Outlet Partners broke ground on its $100
million, 100-store upscale outlet mall in the Cedar
Grove Redevelopment District on Tuesday, June 4.
At the formal groundbreaking event, Mark Ulfers,
director, Dakota County Community Development
Agency, congratulated Paragon Outlet Partners and
then commended Eagan’s leaders.
“With this development, Eagan is setting an example
that other cities can follow,” said Ulfers. “By making
the needed financial commitment and exercising the
patience required, Eagan has positioned itself for
success. It is due to the bold leadership of the Mayor
and City Council and the exemplary execution of their
policy by city staff that puts us where we are today.”
The open-air outlet center is scheduled to open in
August 2014.n
Yo Vang assists customers on Wednesday, June 19, at Herbs, a
Rosemount-based business that has participated in Eagan’s popular
farmer’s market for three years. More than 60 vendors participate in
the seven-year-old event. A weekly concert, free kids area, playground,
walking trails and theme nights round out the offerings. Eagan Market
Fest is open every Wednesday, 4 to 8 p.m., through September 25.
The weekly event takes place at Eagan Festival Grounds at Central
Park, 1501 Central Parkway.n
Eagan Market Fest features 60-plus vendors
Paragon outlet center
breaks ground
Eagan
4 Eagan Business NEWS
Business News
3830 Pilot Knob Road ●Eagan, MN 55122
Editor Karin B. Miller, Working Words, Inc.
Designer Brent Kastler, Illumine Associates, Inc.
Send comments and story ideas to EBN@cityofeagan.com.
Briefly:Eagan businesses in the news
• PEOPLE:Chuck Colin,a longtime driver for Eagan’s ABF Freight
Systems, beat nearly 90 drivers to win the annual Minnesota Truck
Driving Championships in June.… Dwight Opperman,89 — former
CEO of West Publishing Co., now Thomson Reuters — died in June.
Among his many achievements, he helped develop WestLaw, an
extremely popular legal-research tool.
• BUSINESS:The Center for Prevention at Blue Cross and Blue
Shield of Minnesota has awarded up to $1.8 million in funding
and technical assistance to 13 organizations, including the Eagan
Resource Center. Its goal is to help the state’s low-income and
minority populations reduce tobacco use, access more healthful
food and make active living easier.… Fantastic Sams,a hair-care
franchise, has added a third salon in Eagan (2075 Cliff Road).…
Congratulations to Eagan companies featured in the Star Tribune for
its fourth-annual list of the Top 100 Workplaces in Minnesota. Among
them, Intertech — an Eagan software development, training and
consulting company — was named No. 8 among small companies.
Quoted in an accompanying feature, “Small companies: Rockin’ pays
off at work and play” (Star Tribune,June 16), Tom Salonek, owner
and president, said, “If you speak plainly and do what you say,
especially those people who have been around the block, they’re
going to appreciate being in an environment where they trust and
believe in what the management team is doing.” Two more Eagan
companies — Inside Edge CIS,a nationwide commercial flooring
services company, and Avionte,a staffing software company —
were named No. 17 and No. 33 respectively in the same
small-companies list. Among large companies, Eagan’s Prime
Therapeutics — the fourth-largest, pharmacy-benefit managing
company — was named No. 17. In the accompanying article,
“Large companies: Employee engagement comes through loud
and clear” (Star Tribune,June 16),” Eric Elliott, CEO of Prime
Therapeutics, was quoted: “We believe that employees understand
what we are trying to accomplish and feel a sense of ownership.”n
Standard
U.S. Postage
PAID
TWIN CITIES, MN
Permit No. 4902
(page 1 Osberg gets to know Eagan
business climate and more
6 page 2 Riders join the Red Line
C page 4 Briefly: Eagan businesses in the news
)page 3 n Eagan: Employment Hot Spot
n Paragon outlet center breaks ground
n Eagan Market Fest
features 60-plus vendors
i n s i d e t h i s i s s u e